Doctors buy their first home later than almost any other profession. A decade of study, a HECS balance, and a run of fixed-term registrar contracts push the milestone back, right as house prices keep moving. The good news: lenders compete harder for AHPRA-registered borrowers than for anyone else, and the policies built for medicos are designed to solve exactly the problems a first-home-buying doctor has.
1. You don’t need a 20% deposit
The single biggest medico benefit: doctors, dentists and vets can borrow up to 95% of the purchase price with no lenders mortgage insurance at multiple lenders. On a $900,000 first home, a standard buyer needs $180,000 down to avoid LMI; a doctor can get there with $45,000–$90,000 and pay no premium, a saving of roughly $25,000–$40,000. In a rising market, buying two or three years earlier usually matters far more than any interest-rate difference.
2. The medico waiver usually beats the First Home Guarantee
The federal First Home Guarantee also lets you buy with 5% and no LMI, but it comes with property price caps and income caps that many doctors exceed, or will exceed the moment they pick up overtime. The medico LMI waiver has no income cap, works at much higher purchase prices, and doesn’t require filling out the government guarantee forms. Most first-home doctors are better served by the waiver; a broker checks both and takes whichever leaves you ahead.
3. Stamp duty concessions still stack on top
First home buyer duty relief is state-based and completely independent of how your loan is structured. In NSW, first home buyers pay no transfer duty up to $800,000 and a concessional rate to $1m; Victoria exempts purchases to $600,000 with a concession to $750,000. Using a medico loan doesn’t cost you any of it. Run your numbers in our stamp duty calculator.
4. Registrar and intern income counts properly
A generalist bank sees a fixed-term contract and a probation clause. Lenders with medico policy see a training pathway that only points one direction: registrars are treated as continuously employed, interns qualify for the waiver at several banks from day one, and overtime, on-call allowances and penalty rates are counted at 100% rather than shaded to 80%. For a hospital-based doctor that difference alone can add six figures of borrowing power.
5. HECS is a factor, manage it, don’t fear it
HECS repayments scale with income, so a large balance does trim your borrowing power. But it rarely decides the outcome: lenders assess the repayment, not the balance, and some read it more gently than others. Occasionally clearing a small remaining balance before applying is worth it; usually your deposit works harder as a deposit. This is a five-minute modelling exercise, not a reason to wait. More detail in our HECS guide.
6. Gifts and light savings histories are workable
High-LVR loans normally require “genuine savings”, months of visible saving history. Medico policy is more flexible: parental gifts, sign-on bonuses and recently accumulated funds are accepted at the right lenders with the right paperwork. If your deposit story is unconventional, that’s a lender-selection problem, not a dealbreaker.
7. How the process runs around hospital hours
Get pre-approved before you inspect anything, so you walk into auctions knowing your ceiling. The whole process runs digitally, with calls in the evenings or on weekends, and one broker handling the file end to end. From there: find the property, formal approval, settlement, keys.
The mistakes that cost first-home doctors the most
Waiting to save 20% when the waiver makes it unnecessary. Asking your own bank, whose calculator says no while a medico lender says yes. And squeezing under First Home Guarantee caps when the waiver would have bought the right house. Every one of these is avoidable with a single conversation before you start looking, see our doctor & medico loans page for the full policy list, or book a free consultation with Nathan.